


Eyes on Him

by spotty_lion



Series: Final Fantasy Shenanigans [23]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Angst, Implied Urianger/WoL, Lots of Angst, M/M, Named Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Patch 5.3: Reflections in Crystal, Patch 5.3: Reflections in Crystal Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-21
Updated: 2020-08-21
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:08:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26027740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spotty_lion/pseuds/spotty_lion
Summary: Eyes followed him wherever he went.
Relationships: Urianger Augurelt/Warrior of Light
Series: Final Fantasy Shenanigans [23]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1135331
Kudos: 8





	Eyes on Him

Eyes had been on him since day one. He could go nowhere without being hailed as a hero. Or a villain in some places.

Eyes followed him wherever he went. He was a magnet for them, something for them to pin all of their hopes and all of their dreams upon him. He was an answer to their trials. He was a bandage to their bloodshed.

He was a blade to their enemy.

It had plagued him, the thought of being nothing but a weapon to those around him. That those who looked upon him saw nothing but his magic and his fangs. 

That perhaps one day that weapon would have to be turned on those he cared for.

Ardbert’s face smiled at him. 

‘One of your biggest fears, isn’t it?’ Elidibus’ voice taunted him.

He said nothing. He was used to staying quiet. 

His uncovered eye narrowed. There was a tremor up his spine at the inclination that there was  _ something _ coming,  _ something _ up the Ascian’s sleeve. There always was.

‘Never were much of a talker, were you?’ he continued, leading Jack down the path of the city long lost. ‘Always more happy for others to talk for you, were you not? Always more happy for others to take the blame.’

Jack looked away, his jaw clenching. Elidibus didn’t need to hear anything from him.

‘Well, this might be upsetting for you,’ the Ascian said, the hands of his violet portals beginning to grip at his shoulders. ‘But then again, you were never shy about killing  _ my _ friends.’

And then he was engulfed by his smoke and mirrors.

‘What?’ Jack murmured, his hand on his weapon.

And then they came.

His friends.

He felt the pressure of eyes upon him once more.

Familiar eyes in shades of red and blue, green and purple.

These were not the Scions, as he had expected them to be.

This was  _ Solar _ .

If he were a more hopeful soul, he would have released his hesitant hand upon his weapon and approached them like he would any other day. With kindness and open arms.

But he was not.

These weren’t his friends, just reimagined shades of them. 

He could tell by their drawn weapons. 

The aggression lined on their faces.

The bloodlust that stained the paving stones where they stepped.

Their eyes that should have been alight with recognition, with happiness to see him. But they weren’t. And they couldn’t be.

But knowing that they were nothing but imagination didn’t make it any easier.

As he watched Eden’s body threaten to crumble as her limbs froze up from the ice clawing at her skin - the ice from his staff, from his hands, from his magic - his throat closed up with his sorrow.

As he watched Zelda’s body twist in agony through her murderous rage, her desperation to  _ kill _ and  _ maim _ and  _ torture _ , tears streaked down his cheeks.

As he watched Anjelain’s face, the wrong one, the Viera that had claimed to have his name, rot under the force of his flames, he let out an audible sob. It was the smile that Anjelain gave him that truly broke him. The smile that melted under the hot hands of fire.  _ His _ fire.

_ He _ was doing this.

As Jacky fell at his feet, a sight he had never expected to see, it finally ended.

And he felt his knees tremble as he looked at the dead bodies of his friends around him.

He almost forgot that this was just the beginning.

With a snarl of arcane, Elidibus returned.

‘Oh dear,’ he said, mockery flooding his tone. ‘What a shame.’

Jack’s ears lay flat. He could take another war, another fight. He could take bloodshed. He could take seeing the concrete slabs splattered with bloodstains. But seeing his friends’ blood smeared across the ground, by  _ his _ hand, no less, was more than he could take.

But the worst was yet to come.

Though his tears had stopped by the time he was fighting Estinien’s body twisted by Nidhogg’s grief, they spilt anew upon meeting wrath-filled golden eyes.

Zenos’ shade had been laid low, and Jack was growing weary. His heart was heavy and he wanted nothing more than to  _ go home _ . To go home and hide under his covers, shielded from the world and all of its hurt.

But Elidibus had other plans.

‘I have one last surprise for you.’

‘Oh, I can’t wait,’ the hrothgar drawled, his voice still rough with his melancholy.

Elidibus said nothing more. All that crossed his lips was a smirk.

And then he disappeared, snatched away by the hands of black magic.

And in his place--

Jack felt bile rise up in his throat.

Where the Ascian had once stood, clad in his stolen skin, now stood a face that Jack had woken up to many times, a body that Jack had explored many more, in clothes that Jack had become so familiar with since seeing them for the first time.

‘No,’ he whispered. ‘No, I-- I  _ can’t _ .’

Urianger drew his astrologian globe. He pulled a card from his deck, holding it up between two fingers. His eyes were filled with an anger, a  _ fury _ , that Jack had never seen before. Eyes that Jack had only ever seen filled with love, now made him flinch away. Eyes that had always been his reprieve, his comfort.

Now they did nothing but hurt him.

There came a flash of light, and then came the pain. Stars studded into his chest, summoned from Urianger’s hands. It shouldn’t have hurt so much, but--

His heart was bleeding, he was sure of it. Drowning and drenching his robes with its ache.

He would have to.

He knew it.

But--

But--

‘Thou hast claimed the lives of so many before now,’ Urianger snarled, ‘why doth thine hand stall now?’

Jack couldn’t see. His blindness had infected his remaining eye, what little vision he had left. Everything was blurred. He blinked and felt the tears stain his cheek.

He put his hand on his weapon.

He felt his entire body come alight with sheer  _ agony _ .

He pulled his weapon from his back.

He felt his hands crackle with the familiar beginnings of the cast.

He shut his eyes.

This was one death that he could not bear to witness.

He heard the strangled cry ripped from Urianger’s throat. The  _ shade _ of Urianger. It wasn’t real. It wasn’t real. It wasn’t real.

_ It wasn’t real _ .

He heard the dull thud of the body hitting the concrete.

He didn’t want to open his eyes.

‘It’s not real,’ he whispered. ‘It’s not. It’s  _ not _ .’

‘Oh, but it was for me,’ Elidibus said.

Jack flinched, his nerves on fire, fraying at the edges. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said, his teeth bared, eyes finally opening. ‘I’m  _ sorry _ that they’re gone, that you’re the last one left. I’m  _ sorry _ . But this… this is low, even for  _ you _ .’

The Ascian shrugged. ‘Apologies will get you nowhere,’ he said, a deep frown tainting his lips. ‘We are far too gone for that.’

‘I can offer you nothing else,’ the hrothgar said.

His gaze caught the crumpled body of Urianger, and it would not let go. Everything stopped. His ears filled with water, a sharp static noise piercing through his hearing.

_ He _ had done this.

Urianger lay dead by  _ his _ hands.

His worst fear had finally come true.

‘Oh, but you can,’ the Emissary purred. ‘Your  _ life _ will suffice.’

Jack could not find it in him to care.

**Author's Note:**

> If you wish to join the Emet-Selch Book Club Discord server, you can join here: https://discord.gg/px28bh


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